<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Well, so that's when you did, you actually started getting of these primary source documents, maps, photographs.

KN: And a few years ago, Mary Jo McConahay, she's an author, she wrote the book called The Tango War, she interviewed my family, and just happens that she lives two blocks from here. So we went to her place, and that kind of also started this whole thing, because she asked for a family picture, she asked for a lot of information. And what was interesting about that is when we spoke to her as the three of us together, it takes a third party like her to start bringing things out, and Jimmy or George would say things that I never heard before. Like, "How come you didn't tell me that forty or fifty years ago?" Well, that's because no one asked. But now that it's together, they started to say things and he was, Jimmy was saying, "Our barrack number was something-something," and now I could show him this picture that confirms all these things. So everything starts to come together, it becomes an accurate story. That's what's important for me, it's not just vague hearsay, now we can say this really happened, and that's where we were and so on. I think that's really important for our family as well. So I'm showing that to my nephews, my sons and my daughter, it's now real. I'm trying to get my granddaughter more involved in it, but she's fourteen now, so her focus, of course, is school, she just started high school.

TI: That's an amazing story, that the writer of that book, The Tango War, that she used to just live a couple blocks away. Was that just a coincidence in that when she did the book, she said, "Oh, my gosh"?

KN: Well, you know what it is, she knew Grace Shimizu who does the Japanese Peruvian oral history project, and she asked, "Do you know about the people that were interned?" So she referred us and she called me. And we were, folks here, the Noe Valley, this area's called Noe Valley, the Noe Valley Voice, in the papers. Soon after that, that story got out, and of course the San Francisco Chronicle came out. And I'll show you some articles on that, and they contacted me and said, "Can we do a story?" And I said, "Sure, of course." Because the more people know about this, the better, of course, and then they came here. The woman that was a photographer, she was a Japanese American, and heard that her uncle was in Crystal City, too, how interesting. She didn't say anything, by the way, I just found out later on through Hiroshi Shimizu. He's more of the historian, by the way, he's very good at it.

TI: I know, I know him.

KN: Anyways, yes, so she took some really great photos, the most dramatic, and it got into the Chronicle. And once it hits the newspaper, I would get an email from one of my former clients, he deals with what's called "orphan diseases," diseases that very few children have. But anyway, he says, "Tony, is that you?" Because he said, "I only knew a Naganuma that lived in Noe Valley," of course, we went back and forth. He's not an American from here, I'm trying to think what his nationality is. But he kept apologizing as if it was... "I'm so sorry that this happened to your family," which was really nice, but he didn't have to do that. And I graduated in 1960 from high school, so I get an email from someone in high school, I didn't even know him that well. He says, "Is that Tony that played basketball?" [Laughs] "Yeah," I said. He said, "God, I never knew," of course, they never knew. So that's what, of course, exposure does.

TI: So that's something else that happened since March is people...

KN: Oh, it was before that, before the March pilgrimage. So the book came out, the Chronicle...

TI: That's right.

KN: Yeah, so all this, the publicity started to happen. And I was glad because, again, I could tell the family story, so important. And then I got my brothers involved. But then in the beginning it was kind of ho hum, but once they got into it, I think they started talking about it, which was good.

TI: Okay, so you're doing more research, you're getting more feedback, anything else happen? And, of course, the planning for the October/November pilgrimage.

KN: The planning right now is really at a critical point where we're getting really good people to come, number one, key players, and we're trying to confirm all of that, so that's really been our focus, nothing else. As I said, we are meeting weekly, it's a lot of work, a lot more than we thought. Instead of, like, fifty, sixty people, now we have a hundred seventy-five, we're actually starting to turn down people. The deadline passed a long time ago, first of September, but certain players, people that are important are wanting to come, like the reverend from the Buddhist church here, he just saw me at a service that I attended for my sister, and he said, "Oh, so what's going on with the pilgrimage?" I said, "Well, we're doing it." He said, "Oh, can I come?" [Laughs] He went to the one in March. I said, "Well, sure," and everyone loved the fact that he's coming, so he just signed up. So it's, the stragglers, if you will, are coming, but they're important ones.

TI: And where do you guys, are you staying? Are there facilities that hold that many people? That's surprising.

KN: Oh, it'll be at the (La Quinta Inn), they gave us a special rate.

TI: Is this in San Antonio?

KN: San Antonio, yeah.

TI: Oh, so you have to drive.

KN: Yeah, it's almost two hours, so we'll have three busloads and a couple of vans that will take us, it's about a two-hour trip. That's what we did in March as well. This way we'll spend a whole day there, that's another whole logistical thing, it's really tricky moving that many people, and there are two ninety-two year olds that are coming. So we'll probably have them go in the van, that's easier for them to get in and out. A thirteen year old as well, so we've got a big range here.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.